Having My Wisdom Teeth Out (UK)

I have never been under general anaesthetic before, and was shitting bricks about getting my wisdom teeth out. As soon as I found out I wouldn’t be as loopy as American’s are post-surgery, I became less excited too. I thought I’d at least get a hilarious video out of it.

I’d been having nightmares about the procedure for about a month prior to surgery day. I was honestly so nervous. Of course I was excited to get them out- I’ve had problems with my wisdom teeth for years now. I had a meeting at work only a couple of months ago, where one of my lower teeth caused so much swelling to the gum, that my cheek became all puffed up. I had a lot of hair covering my face for that meeting – very embarrassing.

On the morning of my surgery, mum and I got ready and drove over to sign in. I got comfortable on my bed, and mum and I played 20 questions to calm my nerves. I was nervous because I could hear people crying, random alarms were going off and there were several patients attached to various tubes. However, my nerves were also calmed by the fact that several nurses and doctors came over to talk me over the procedure, as well as the surgeon herself, and the anaesthetist. Everyone was super duper lovely.

Once it was time for my surgery, a lovely nurse wheeled me into where the anaesthetist was. We spoke about all the mashed up food I can have post-op (ice cream, mash potato, soup…), and then I spoke to the nurse who accompanied the anaesthetist, who asked me what work I did day-to-day, and tried distracting me from my nerves.

The anaesthetist then explained how once he had injected the general anaesthesia, I was going to feel like I’ve had a couple of beers. Once I begun feeling drowsy, I was to indicate to both doctors so that we could begin counting down from 10 – but to be honest, I was waiting to start feeling drowsy, and then I must have just switched off completely. Next thing I know I’m in recovery.

My body was in complete shock. I was uncontrollably shaking for a good 10 minutes. The nurse who was with me at that point, covered me with several blankets and offered me some water. I dribbled the water all down myself because I couldn’t feel my lips haha. I also asked for my mum about 80 kazillion times, so she allowed me to speak to her on the phone briefly. I was very confused at this point, and was speaking like there was a giant gobstopper in my mouth.

I was then wheeled into another recovery room, where I saw my mum again. The surgeon came in and told me that we had a very successful operation, which required no stitches (woohoo!) From this point onwards, recovery was very quick, and was discharged after around an hour.